Letter from Crimea: ‘Scotland should send a fact-finding team to learn from our referendum’

The referendum in Crimea, designed to extract the state from Ukraine, has created one of the most serious international crises of recent times.

But just how ready is the government for the vote, especially as the date for it has been brought forward twice?

“Don’t worry about that, we have been ready for 20 years, for 20 years we have tried to be free from this artificial union,” reassured Dimitre Polonski, the Crimean information minister.

“In fact Catalonia and Scotland should send fact-finding delegations to see how we’re doing it.”

The officials have been rather vague about details, with just six days to go before polls open. Many more ballot papers are supposedly being produced than the number of voters, adding to rigging claims.

The Crimean government is preparing for strife as well as peaceful transition. A local army has formed — to all intents and purposes as an adjunct of Russian troops and under their command. After the referendum, which the Crimean government has stressed is only there to rubber stamp their decision to secede, the Russians will be the “only legitimate force” here. Those of the Ukrainian government should either pledge allegiance to them, or “go home”.

On a bitterly cold afternoon a batch of recruits pledged allegiance to Crimea in a security base car park, in front of the prime minister of the republic, Sergey Aksyonov.

The icy wind, along with a generator, drowned out much of the speeches. But there were loud hurrahs from the new Crimean soldiers as Mr Aksyonov, wearing only a suit, gave his.

The Crimean premier, who has a chequered past, kept his cool during aggressive questioning from the Western media. Why is he being called Putin’s puppet? “Well people say all kinds of things.” And so on.

He was in a confident mood — one of his bodyguards whispered he had personally arranged the surrender of a Ukrainian base yesterday.

I asked a young recruit, who was examining his Kalashnikov, if he expected to use it. With genuine puzzlement, he asked: “Why have a fine rifle like this if you are not going to use it?”